Potential investors meet with mayor, others in morning meeting

Billionaire investors Ron Burkle and Mark Mastrov were in Sacramento on Monday, meeting with the mayor and City Council members in separate meetings about their effort to keep the Kings in town and build a new arena at Downtown Plaza.

"I was very impressed," said Councilman Steve Cohn, referring to Burkle and Mastrov's statements in one of those meetings, which included Cohn and Councilman Allen Warren, who are both members of a council committee that helped formulate a new financial term sheet for the arena.

"At first, they were very quiet, and were basically listening," Cohn said. "But then, they got talking about the deal and why they’re confident that this will go forward, and also, why they’re excited about coming to Sacramento."

A third major investor, Vivek Ranadive, did not attend Monday's meetings.

While in Sacramento, Burkle and Mastrov also met with Todd Chapman, the CEO of JMA Ventures, which owns the Downtown Plaza.

Meanwhile, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson spoke publicly Monday afternoon for the first time since a financial term sheet for an arena was released Saturday.

"(The) ownership team came to town to listen and share [its] vision," Johnson said.

"This deal provides more certainty," he said, as he made a comparison to a prior arena deal.

But, the arena plan continues to face uncertainty and recently, its critics have become more vocal. On Monday, KCRA 3 learned that Sacramento Taxpayers Opposed To Pork (STOP) is the group behind a threat to file a referendum petition if city leaders don't put the arena plan to a public vote.

"The risk associated with this is mind boggling," said Julian Camacho, the group's chair. "The detail hasn't been well-thought through. It hasn't been fleshed out. The cash flow analysis is still wanting."

Earlier this month, two Sacramento attorneys sent a lengthy letter to City Hall, detailing the plan to file a referendum petition, but the attorneys did not say who they were representing.

One thing Camacho's group opposes is a tentative agreement -- according to the term sheet -- to give Burkle city-owned parcels. Several lots in downtown, and one adjacent to Haggin Oaks golf course, are estimated to be worth $38 million and would help the city meet its contribution of $258 million toward an arena.

But the bulk of the money would come from bonds the city would issue, then repay with city parking revenue.

City leaders now say that city parking revenue would continue to belong to the city -- rather than be leased out to a private company for a lump sum, as a prior arena plan proposed.

The change in parking terms, and the fact that the city would keep a greater amount of arena revenue than it would have using the old term sheet make this a better deal than the old one, said George Jouganatos, an economics professor at Sacramento State University.

"We're not giving up those assets and we're getting a tad more revenue," Jouganatos said.

But, he said that a better deal than the previous one may not be a determining factor for taxpayers who oppose spending so much for an arena.

Still, Cohn said he is excited about the possibility of seeing an arena built and seeing the Kings stay in town, as well as about his meeting with Burkle and Mastrov.

"They see a lot more potential in Sacramento than frankly most of us here in Sacramento see," Cohn said. "And that's, I think, very very telling."